The start of 2019 has been jam packed with exhibitions. I am very happy to a be a part of all of these exhibitions and have only now had a minute to sit down and write about them.

In January, I installed a new piece in an exhibition with the Palmetto Curatorial Exchange at the South Carolina Educational Television Studio in Columbia, South Carolina.This piece is one that contains living grass that slowly gets dry and dies over the course of the exhibition.I have not seen this piece since January and am very curious as to how it looks now.This piece and works from other artists from South Carolina is on display through April 2019.

Also, in January, the 701 Center for Contemporary Art Prize Exhibition moved from Columbia, South Carolina to the Jones-Carter Gallery in Lake City, South Carolina. The work was displayed in a different configuration and overall the show looked great. Below you will find some photos from that exhibition. The exhibition at Jones-Carter Gallery closed on February 23rd, 2019 and a good amount of people able to see the show throughout its duration.

At the end of January, I traveled to Kirksville, Missouri to install work in the Truman State University Art Gallery. Dreamwork is the collective theme of the work of Leah Boring, Emily Nickel, and me. All former students of Wynne Wilbur, we were invited to show work alongside the retrospective of Wynne. She is retiring after this semester and will be leaving a definite whole at Truman. We were all so proud to be able to be together to celebrate Wynne and our individual successes. The exhibition ran from January 26th – March 1st. Below are some photos of my work but it is worth a look around to find images of the whole exhibition. It looked fantastic.

Opening on March 1st in Savannah, Georgia is Sip: A Ceramic Cup Show will be on display at the Whitefield Center. The exhibition of cups will be open until March 8th. This exhibition is put on by the Savannah Clay Community and 10% of sales is donated to the Emmaus House to help feed Savannah’s hungry. The show is also available online, HERE.

In November of 2018 I was selected as a Finalist for the 701 Center for Contemporary Art Prize. This prize selects 3 finalist for an exhibition at 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, South Carolina. The exhibition of the 3 finalist them moves to Lake City, South Carolina at the beginning of 2019.

The exhibition looks fantastic at 701 CCA and I am excited for the installation in Lake City. This was the first time that I have hung, No Need To Look Up from the ceiling and I cannot be more pleased with how this changes the work. These are also the second version of this piece with the chandelier wired in the same fashion as a light fixture. Previously, the chandelier was wired so that the entire chandelier would light up or twinkle. I may go back to making the whole piece glow in the future but for now, this newer version looks wonderful.

Overall this was a wonderful experience and a huge congratulations goes out to Jena Thomas for being selected as the winner. The winner receives a 6 week paid residency, solo exhibition, and an advertisement in a national publication.

For a good portion of the Summer of 2016, I was a Studio assistant in Ceramics at Peters Valley School of Craft. My time there was incredible and it really opened up my mind to working in the craft school environment. I had take workshops at other craft schools before but that was the first time I had actually worked at one.

Recently, I was able to go back and take a workshop to refresh my glaze chemistry skills. I took a workshop with Bill Carty and it was amazing. Bill did an wonderful job taking his crazy, vast knowledge of ceramic materials and explaining/teaching to a bunch of artists.

We spent a lot of time looking at the Stull Chart (pictured below), to understand the outcomes of glazes. After testing a bunch of glazes and placing them on the Stull chart, we were able to play around with different variations, colors, and effects.

I am just now realizing that I did not take many photos but here is another one that has some tests that I did. Overall, this workshop was amazing and I am glad that all of the material presented was given to us in the form of a bound book and a flash drive that contains all of the goods.